Elijah Souels was very clear on one point as he looked for a job in the music world: He would never work with kids. “The childhood stage is crucial when it comes to learning music. I didn’t want to be responsible for mixing any toxins into the innocence.”
Elijah remembers that point of view with a smile, now that he is on the faculty of Keys 2 Success (K2S) teaching classical piano to elementary-aged Newark children. But his former perspective says much about his own childhood experiences in music and the barriers he has overcome in becoming a professional musician and composer.
“The Keys kids are amazing!” he explains. “I’d never known kids who really heard music the way they do, who want to learn how to make that music--all kinds of music.” That’s what drew him to become a staff member of K2S: the “open space,” as he describes it, for children to develop not only piano skills but also confidence, persistence, and self-expression.
Elijah’s role in K2S goes beyond teaching to arranging and composing music for the children to perform. In recent months, K2S has performed in two virtual concerts featuring his work. In June, the children played a traditional piece, Simple Gifts, with members of the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey (BONJ). Maestra Robert Butts of BONJ wrote the orchestral arrangement to accommodate Elijah’s arrangement for the keyboards, which met the various proficiency levels of the children. And in October, seven students, along with Elijah and Jee-Hoon Krska, the founder and lead teacher of Keys 2 Success, played an arrangement of Lift Every Voice and Sing. It included a jazz-leaning cadenza that is entirely original.
The work of composition and arrangement for Elijah began when Jee-Hoon, observing that he was inventing arrangements on-the-spot for some of the more advanced children in class, asked him to take on arranging Simple Gifts for the children on keyboards. “I knew our kids would take time to learn their piece, and I didn’t want to rush Bob [Butts] on the composition for the orchestra.” Elijah agreed and had the arrangement worked out within the hour. Graciously, Maestro Butts published the work in total as co-composed. “That doesn’t happen in the classical music world,” Ms.Krska explained. “Usually, the more established composer would pay someone like Elijah a fee but publish the work under his or her own name. Bob gave Elijah equal credit.”
When asked to describe his creative process in arranging and composing, Elijah said, “Very often, the arrangement is finished before it’s written.” For the simple pieces that the children play, he starts with the basic notes and adds in harmonies and chords. But for more complex arrangements and original work, “I sit down and play. I’m often hearing what’s next just before I play it on the keys. It’s a very hands-on, intimate process.”
Elijah’s childhood in music wasn’t as effortless. He started playing, first drums, then piano, at the church where his father was a preacher. As a self-taught child musician, he was often pushed aside by more proficient players at the church, which both challenged him to enhance his abilities but also dented his confidence. Piano lessons taught him how to read music, but a focus on scales and arpeggios was too far from the music he loved to sustain him. Later in school, he encountered several encouraging teachers and mentors; but he also experienced an often competitive environment or rigidity in curriculum that felt more discouraging than inspiring.
Ironically, his own experiences play a crucial part in his current work with the Keys students. “I can give them what I didn’t have. Whatever kind of music they want to play -- classical, jazz, reggae--I can help them,” Elijah explained. “That inspires me.”
This is the second in a series of features on teachers and students involved in our fall performance, recorded at =Space in Newark. Next: A conversation with Chyantre Swann on her journey from Pennington Court to Rutgers University and her motivation for volunteering with Keys 2 Success.
